Arcata Votes to Relocate McKinley Statue

Arcata, CA – On Tuesday, November 6, 2018, registered Arcata voters had the opportunity to vote in favor of, or against the McKinley statue measure, known as Measure M.

On Tuesday, November 6 the majority of Arcata voters (62.16%) voted Measure M down. As such, the City Council’s vote from Wednesday, February 21 still stands, and City staff will initiate the review of relocating the McKinley statue from the center of Arcata’s Plaza.

The McKinley statue is identified as a historic feature of the Plaza in the City’s guiding document called the General Plan, and this designation requires the City to complete an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prior to taking action to relocate the statue. The intent of environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is to describe the potential impacts of removing McKinley to City officials and the public.

The Community Development Department will finalize the environmental review currently underway, with their immediate goal being the preservation and safe storage of the statue. This review process relies heavily on input from community members and resource experts, and once the input received is incorporated into the environmental documents, the Planning Commission and City Council will hold public hearings to formally decide to relocate the statue.

In order to complete the relocation process, the EIR process must be finalized. The Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) has been circulated for public comment, and the input received will be incorporated into the Final EIR, which is estimated to be completed by the end of this year.

The City Council will make its decision in early 2019 to finalize the statue relocation project. Additional details will be announced as they become available.

Community members with offers and suggestions for the relocation of the McKinley statue are encouraged to call 707-822-5955 or email dloya@cityofarcata.org with the subject line of “McKinley Statue Relocation.”

60 comments

I think a museum teaching the history of McKinley would be nice. That way people who care about it have a place to go and view it even teach others and if you dont want to see it dont go. Museum can even pay for itself.

One of the ideas is to ship it off to his birthplace museum. The museum doesn’t have anything like it, and would make an excellent addition to the collection. It can even go right outside, once spruced up from it’s current splashed state.
The man who paid for it meant it to be a memorial to him, and it should continue to be.
However, after honoring him for five score and a dozen years, its time to have our band-and- speaking platform gazebo back. Considering how often we have music in the center of the plaza (and have had for decades), it’ll be nice to have it back again.
Perhaps a nice sign on the side, with a picture, to recognize that it was there for so many years would be nice, too.

Why not just place it in long term permanent storage? Why does it have to be relocated? It has become so unpopular it will be protested anywhere it is placed in public. If placed in storage, it could be brought out and put back in place on the plaza, in the unlikely event politics turn around. Otherwise, let it collect dust somewhere. Since it has been designated an historical feature of the plaza, it really shouldn’t be melted down. Of course melting it down would kind of be like burning books. I’ve read that has been done in the past.

Definition of fascism
1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

I think that in times where nobody cares about the past, and everybody is just out for themselves, it probably does not matter what happens to a 112 year old statue. Take it down, leave it, who fucking cares? Let’s get a cup of coffee and smoke a joint!

Whoops, time for class!

It will be a sad world, in Arcata, in 25 years, but then, everybody there will be speaking Espanol and will be hooked on tar.

What I said is “nobody cares”. The statue was seriously defaced by tattooed skateboarding friend-stabbing miscreants, anyway, and, Mckinley is one of those forgotten politicians, just like Trump will be in a couple years. The history of Amerika was shockingly bad, during McKinley and Roosevelt. It is amazing that any of us are around to tell the tale.

Also, by my logic, it is illogical to erect statues of anyone at all, since modern society has no respect for anyone or anything, and many persons certainly no have respect for themselves… Maybe a statue of a pile of money, or a statue of some really nice pot, like on Instagram…

I have zero respect for democracy, nor did the founding fathers that you, no doubt, despise. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding on what’s for dinner. The word is mentioned nowhere in the constitution. The fact that simpletons like you don’t understand this is the same reason we have scores of imbeciles crying about the electoral college, Hillary being the ringleader.

But the Constitution does, both initially and as subsequently amended, give the right to choose the Electors (the College of Electors) to the States. The States then mandated a democratic voting system universally. So while the Constitution does not give indivdual voting guarantees, the States have the power to do so and have done so.

The Electors numbers reflect the legislature. Which was a safeguard offer so that small states would be less afraid of being railroaded by more populous states. And, looking at California’s recent behavior, that is a good thing. It means it takes more than a small majority to impose one big State’s will on the reluctant. Good enough to work for 242 years despite the outraged complaints of those who won the popular vote but not everywhere. If populous States had all the power over smaller States without check, smaller States would have left the Union long ago.

The Constitutional Republic was established as a bulwark aginst the tyranny of the majority. The structure of elections was setup to have the educated (enlightened) populace guiding the country into the future. There was a very real concern that the uneducated majority would derail this grand experiment.

“…Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide….”

-John Adams

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” –Thomas Jefferson

Statues are kind of silly, anyway… Assassination of the statue seems appropriate, in this case.

Giving an edifice to Mckinley is rather obtuse, and, the policies of the US government included lying, which is nothing new, stealing, in the case of Puerto RIco and The Phillipines, and, making imperialistic wars, enslaving people, and murdering Native Americans! The man who assassinated Mckinley should have a statue!

Just think, Trump wants a wall between here and Mexico, but I am surprised that he does not want a wall around the Philippines to keep the 125,000,000 residents of that archipelago from arriving in Northern CA to take everyone’s jobs! Maybe we should have a statue of Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater, since they are the ideal and actual representation of the odd politics present in Humboldt, and a statue of Stalin, so the Commies in Arcata can worship at their lesiure and in public…

No, McKinley is out of date, and out of favor! Tear down the wall, and melt down the statue! Our newest hero is Cannabis Oil anyway, so maybe a statue of a CBD Molecule?

It is what jobs are Philippines taking? Look at the street in Arcata the panhandle are white(no disrespect to Whites) Hispanics and Philippines works those people are doing the Jobs that Whites don’t want to do or are too good for it. They prefer to ask for food stamps..
Get your facts straight before commenting in social media

I think it should be placed dead center of HSU. If the university and its student’s are for teaching and learning this is an important lesson to learn. If you cry loud enough, act out of line, and deface city property you too can get your way. To hell with history and keeping a reminder of the past, good, bad or indifferent. Allowing your feelings to be hurt by a statue of a president is well childish!

This action is a testament to how weak our society has become. Everyone who was so offended by a statue to a point that it had to be removed is very weak. We will not survive with this weak blood coursing through the veins of our society. It won’t last long though, the weak tend to turn and devour each other. Remember, only the strong survive in this world, its embarrassing to see that Americans have fallen so far, Russia and North Korea only have to wait another couple generations and then they will be able to take America for themselves without any fight. Arcata, your weakness is showing.

If arcatans care so much about righting the wrongs of history, lets roll the progression forward a bit, and request all progressives within city limits quitclaim the deeds of their properties to the wiyot Housing authority.
It’s easy, live your language progressives

I agree. I think people are being a bit too sensitive on this issue. That statue, in my mind, is an important part of my memories of Arcata growing up, and I looked around and found nothing that offended me about William McKinley. Seems like an upstanding man of his time. Fought in the civil war, made peace with the Spanish instead of war over Cuba… anyhow, sorry to see him go, and I feel a little more estranged from this overly sensitive brand of progressivism I see in Arcata.

Funny, when the USSR fell, people all over the place immediately started toppling statues of Lenin. No votes taken, no “ballot initiatives,” just, blam, they came down real fast. McKinley, Lenin . . . McKinley, Lenin . . .

It would make more sense in Mckinleyville, but once political demographics change, it won’t be welcome there either.
The culture that created most of the civilized artifice we see will ultimately be pushed out of memory, as it is being pushed out of celebration.
But we should be careful, because eventually it reverts to the Stone Age.
Just look at the the people reverting everywhere you turn.. even in the context of amazing wealth and technology.

The difference is that there was a vote and the statue isn’t being destroyed. So, completely different. Things change all of the time. People move, stores close. Something tiny changes, that hurts nobody, and you start comparing people to Isis. What a fucking crybaby.

*yawn* Yes, statues of a non-violent person revered by the populace being destroyed without public input is totally comparable to the community voting to remove an statue of a politician not connected to the area commissioned long ago by some rich McKinley fan in their grief over his passing and gifted to the city. Totally comparable. In fact, any statue removal must be bad if ISIS removed any statue. Hopefully ISIS doesn’t eat or breathe or we are in trouble.

Damn it people, I’ve said I’ll buy it a dozen times. I’ll put it in my yard on private property a long way from that place Arcata so as not to offend anyone because I doubt those Arcatians could afford the gas to get to my property. I don’t really care about McKinley but I would like to put it under a American flag just out of spite.

$60,000 to remove an old statue that an 81 yr old gold-rush character donated in 1908. In a “peoples republic” town where they have students living in Motels and Motor Vehicles, and skateboarders stab each other every night?

I think the coolest thing I read about the statue is that it was created in San Francisco right before the 1906 quake, and the foundry burned down and all that was left was the statue. Pretty amazing! Too bad he has to go.

Here’s an idea, how about the people of the city of Arcata sending the money ( 70 plus thousand dollars) it would cost to remove the statue to the surviving people of Paradise California, to help them rebuild Paradise and help all those people dealing with their trauma. For those feeling the statue should have been removed, they can pool together and raise enough money among themselves to make a plaque by the statue educating the public about their concerns, but how they opted to give the money to a greater cause.

At a reunion of McKinley descendants in Sacramento, very few of us knew this statue existed. But we now know that a modern Taliban exists and you arcata are it. Everything this country has is because of domineering, conquering, invasive people like President McKinley and your own predecessors.
So why stop now. Every time you look at a map and see the name McKinleyville, let it be in your minds how puny you are. Shame on you arcata shame shame shame.